How do Brits learn to speak and spell??

[44-40 Willy]

I was stationed in Scotland for a couple of years and made friends with some of the local folks. I'm originally from the Arkansas/Texas stateline area and have been accused of having a Texas accent all of my life. My Scottish friends though said that they could understand me better than they could most Americans. I did pick up a few of their ways of saying things while I was over there though.

[awp101]

my wife listens to a Texas cook, Paula Deane on TV. We say "this" like it is spelled.

I'm pretty sure that's a Georgian accent...

Yeah she may have passed through Texas a time or three, but she ain't from here.

But I have become dismayed that most Texans don't speak like Texans anymore (even that depends on what part of the state you're from.)

You're not the only one who has noticed: University of Texas researchers say Lone Star twang is fading

Do you talk Texan?

Say these sentences: “I pulled open a drawer to find a banana. Then, I peeled it.”

Did your “pull” have an “oooh sound, as in pool? Did your “peel” come out more like pill?

Probably not.

Most Texans no longer sound like stereotypical Texans, according to language researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. The twang, they say, is fading.

“What’s so striking is that 30 years ago, about 80 percent of all speakers had clear Texas accents,” said Lars Hinrichs, an assistant professor of English and director of the Texas English Project.

“Nowadays, the recordings my students bring back of people who grew up in Texas hardly ever have a strong Texas accent.”

The reasons are predictable — immigration, urbanization, gentrification — and the shift is most noticeable in people who live in a city, or are younger than 25. Today, people who live in Texas cities sound more like accent-neutral Midwesterners.

But Hinrichs and other researchers said they discovered something surprising when they began studying Texans’ use of their native tongue.

We haven’t abandoned the y’alls and drawls, we just use them when the time is right.

So, when a city-dwelling saleswoman is working in East Texas, she’ll often slip into the hyper-polite “thank you kindly” mode. Or when a Texas-born man is speaking to an elderly woman, he’ll default to the respectful “yes, ma’am.”

“It builds rapport, it’s quaint, it’s friendly,” said Hinrichs. “When you hear someone talking with a Texas twang, you feel like you’re talking to a good person.”

The rest of the article is at the hotlink...

[Canuck Bob]

Every Californian I've met spoke English as a second language, pretty handy with Spanish though.

[rhead]

How do the British learn to speak and spell?

They do not learn how! If they did, you could understand them when they spoke and wrote.

[TomD]

Seems like a lot of the news readers in the US are either Canadian or Texan, apparently nobody much wants to listen to the ones in-between. During the second world war the Canadian accent was regarded as being the most generally understood, so you got Canadians like Lorne Greene doing the news from overseas. Not sure that would work today.

[gamekeeper]

How do the British learn to speak and spell?

They do not learn how! If they did, you could understand them when they spoke and wrote.

[piller]

Seems like a lot of the news readers in the US are either Canadian or Texan, apparently nobody much wants to listen to the ones in-between. During the second world war the Canadian accent was regarded as being the most generally understood, so you got Canadians like Lorne Greene doing the news from overseas. Not sure that would work today.

I have to admit that Lorne Green was very clear when he spoke. If there are many who were clearer and easier to understand, then I don't know who they were. He was a good actor, too. Carol Burnett, a Texan, was very easy to understand when she wasn't in character. Despite his accent, Andy Griffith had very clear diction. Clark Gable was another one with a good clear voice who had good diction. Now, for funny accents, I think the folks from Naw Lins have a humorous accent.

[Pete44ru]

gobblerforge - +1

What intrigues me is when many a Brit, with heavily-accented normal speech, sound un-British & like any American when they sing.



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[Batman1939]

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw

and where do they get bespoke out of benchmade?


Now, let me hear you say wisKAHNsin.
The problem is clearly universal - no one speaks English.

Actually, when I think of a bespoke gun (should it be bespoken?) it conjures up images of fine English made shotguns a la Purdy & Boss. These are made to a customer's specifications and are usually "bench made" in the sense of not being produced in a huge factory. Suits too may be bespoke---I don't know whether they are made at a bench, though they're surely not made in a sweatshop somewhere .

So, bespoke, to me, suggests custom-made more than where made.

[bdhold]

nor is benchmade where made, it's how made